Concerns have been expressed that Bathgate Academy is performing "way below" the levels expected.

Inspectors visited the school in January and their report outlined disappointing maths and English results compared to other high schools in West Lothian, and national figures.

The report went before West Lothian Council's education quality assurance committee and concerns were voiced about its contents.

School league tables published by The Times earlier this year found that Bathgate Academy ranked 11th out of 11 schools in West Lothian when it came to the percentage of pupils with five or more highers.

It was ranked 200 across the whole country, with 31 per cent of pupils with five or more highers.

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Councillor Charles Kennedy told the committee following the inspection: "There's a few concerns. We seem to be performing way below both authority and national levels."

While headteacher Grant Abbot agreed, he did explain that things were starting to get better at the school.

He said: "Those figures are disappointing. There has though been continued improvement and it is beginning to show an impact.”

He said pass rates were beginning to climb after more work had been done with cluster primary schools to develop children’s abilities at primary level. This included primary children working with high school pupils on maths projects.

Mr Abbot added that better consistency and collaboration with the primaries was helping improve overall performance in the maths classes within the first three years of high school and on to the exam years,